From the Editor

Welcome to our summer newsletter.

Please note that our first activity for the year is on February 24th at 4pm in the Mural Room in the Parks Office at Brambuk. Hear about the research done by two of our members Ben Gunn and Bill Gardner.

Then on Saturday March 3 we are having our annual cleanup activity followed by a BBQ lunch. Because a replacement for Caity has not yet been appointed we have been asked to take on more responsibility. If you are able to help please contact us asap so we can work out sites and activities. See below.

April 13 Friday at 5pm Mike Stevens will catch us up to date on what is happening re environmental issues in our park. Some of us will then be heading to Cavendish’s Red Gum Festival the next morning to put up a display on the history of our Red Gum Walk in Victoria Valley.

You will notice a couple of references to the rapidly increasing number of tourists coming to the area to the joy of the tourism folk and the local councils. Dave has commented on the increase in rubbish, but there has also been an increase in rescues of lost and injured hikers. And then the drowning at McKenzie Falls. We are not alone of course, the Twelve Apostles area has the same situation and I have been reading articles on how overcrowded USA parks are and the problems this causes. Incredible photos of human traffic jams at Zion canyon, which I remember visiting peacefully not that many years ago. We as individuals and as a group are not anti-tourism. We boast about the place to our friends and we want to see it loved and appreciated. But how do we prevent people loving a place to death? How do our hard working park staff keep stupid people safe? They either don’t read signs, or ignore them anyway. And expect mobile phone coverage everywhere. Only a minority of visitors of course, but they do waste so much time and some cause so much damage to fragile environments.